The Quilt that Needed More

With DH off at his new job (oh it is so good to know that he's working) the Apple Quilt is at the top of my get'er'done list. Interestingly enough, no matter how much I kick on my quilting hat, this quilt still needs more. I thought I had about two more hours on it. WRONG, 6 hours later I still need 12 more blocks. That's after I did the 8 embroidered hearts, thinking I'd be done with those. Nooooo... Naughty thing. My stash is wearing quite thin in regards to these colors, so hopefully not to much more..

The good news my sister tells me she will help me baste it when I get it done, so once the end is reached the quilt will become a quilt in short order after that. Today I am sharing the center of the quilt. As well the heart embroidery blocks that I stitched out, which can be seen above. Sort of a shabby chic on the reclaimed denim (from my curtain project). Reduce, reuse! I have enough denim leftover to make 4 more blocks. That will bump me up to 12 leaving me with only 8 more instead of 12. I'm thinking the 4 denim blocks I'll add would look good having applique apples on them, so wish me luck there, I've never done that before. While I was putting DD down to nap it hit me, oh Cherry pie sounds good! So I set about making one. It took less than 30 minutes from taking out the ingredients to in the oven. I thought that was pretty good. Of course DH was disappointed he wont get any until he gets home, but I'm certain he will grab a piece then. I did receive the next Row for the Row Robin 2009. Adding the Second row is February's task, but I was so excited I started a little early (which is completely fine). These are two candles that I made one for each end of the row that I will create. The theme is Traditional Elegant Christmas, using cream, gold, red, and green. I do so hope she likes them. I found a paper pieced pattern (a couple of them in fact) but it seemed like complete overkill to me - so I reworked the pattern, thereby making my candle flame more realistic, as well as removing the paper element of my piecing. Because I used a border fabric to make the candle stick holder it has these pretty gold dots almost like fine filigree that just stick out at the top and the bottom. Okay it will stick out at the bottom once it's sewn in by the next person, until than, that extra black seam allowance will just have to be there. Trust me it's worth the effort. Last but never least, I caught DH, and I just had to have a photo. Last week DH expressed an interest in my casting on before starting to knit. Well it flew from there, and before I knew it I'd taught him how to knit! Two wash clothes later, his tension is more uniform than mine, and at my request he is now working on a mat for the cat water bowl.

Try it again Ernie...

Mending has been the topic for me for the past two days. I seem to only get one or two things patched up in a day. Slow and steady for certain. This is a Kitchen Dish Rag that had earned itself an early hole. I honestly didn't feel like the rest of the cloth was that worn so I did a bit of embroidery to repair the hole. High time I did a little fixing for myself. I also did the embroidery work on this t-shirt. Rob hated a couple of them I'd bought a while back because they where to tight in the neck, so I inherited them by default. In the past I'd just stretched the collar a bit to make it not so tight just before wearing (I'm so refined yes I know, haha). So when this shirt earned it's first tiny hole I just embroidered the daylights out over the thing. Honestly it's quite comfortable now. I was worried about the neckline plunging to much and so I moved the entire design up in the hoop. Clearly I didn't need to do that. Jessica discovered the Minnie outfit I made for her the other day. Doesn't she look so pretty? Since yesterday DH has been hard at work digging out the roots in our septic tank. What a large nasty smelly pain. It's fixed now, but not before Fios had to come out and rewire our line because they buried it right on top of the septic so as soon as DH started looking for the corners of the tank. SNAP. They had put us on the list for tomorrow, but after a THIRD phone call they moved us to this evening. You don't realize the problems of having it all together until phone, Internet, and tv all go out. Good thing we have a great movie collection.

Well wait, Verizon does have to come out tomorrow anyway. My fios line is just laying on the grass right now, hey I'm not complaining at least it's working, but someone will have to come out and bury it tomorrow. That will be DH's deal, as I'm hopefully off to the biggest quilt store in all of Florida! Rainbow's End Quilt Shoppe, here I come!

News on that big corp interview DH had, but I'm not ready to share yet.

I finished my scarf, but I don't know how to cast off yet, so no final phone just yet.

The first one for the books

The memorial quilt is done. Hopefully it will be mailed out by the first of the week. This quilt had is hanging sleeve hand sewn on. Boy oh boy how time consuming! In the future I will plan a border big enough to have the sleeve machine sewn to the back in that area. At least the sleeve hides nicely. Can you see it?
This is the update on my knitting. I'm onto the last ball and it is 52" with a goal of 58"+, not much longer now. I hope you can see better this time. Once again length does not include the tassels. I have also been working on blocks for my Springtime 2009 Sampler. It's fun picking patterns. I have a pile of fabrics that match my "main" theme fabric, so when ever the mood strikes I pull out a pattern and pull out my fabric and away we go. The photo above is Churn Dash, with Jessica hollering in my ear this one didn't turn out as great as I would have liked but the embroidery I'd done before Christmas as a trial stitch out, worked here beautifully. This one is my favorite. It is called cactus basket, but I've also heard it called many other things. The basket went together beautifully, and the "flowers" in the basket are my main inspiration print. This one is called Anvil. I like it as once again I was able to use an old stitch out test. The light color is swapped with the dark one in order to use that center to it's best advantage so the directions were backwards, but I got through it.

Currently DH is off for a meet and greet for a little pt job at a big chain. Hopefully he will get it. Having him unemployed since June (father's day) has been really hard.

A word from one who knows, do not sew to the elastic all the way around the waist, if you do you end up with more of a waist band than a stretchy waist. So nearly as soon as I'd made Jessica a skirt she out grew it. Yesterday I decided I would remake her skirt. This time I used Red polka dots complete Minnie Mouse style. Here was the final outfit. I liked it enough to make the skirt long so she can wear it for a long time, perhaps even next Halloween. Can you see my trademark tail feather? Jessica on the other hand wasn't interested. Silly girl, doesn't know what she's missing. I'm certain a real Minnie outfit would be over $50.

Focus?

Apparently a little whining was just the thing I needed to do yesterday. I didn't go to bed until around midnight, but I slept okay. Dreams, but none that I can remember thankfully. I've made beautiful progress on my scarf for Soldier's Angels. It is currently 43" inches long minus the tassels. I'm on my second to last ball which has gotten noticeably smaller so the home stretch is coming up. So sorry you can't see the original green and the tassels very well on the navy, perhaps if you click on it you'll be able to see it better, either way I will be certain
I feel at ease enough that I did a bi-block of the month for Jan. 1st, it is called Flower Bud Block, not to be confused with the Rose Bud Block that I used in the Butterfly Bouquet Quilt. Note for the Rose Bud I did make my a bit differently (I used the Eleanor Burns method from her Quilt in a Day Egg Money Quilts Sampler show, which can be found in her book but costs money). This block was used with some of the colors I have picked out for my 2009 Sampler, so it will be set aside for doing that.

As well as starting the BOM I have also signed up with my quilting board to create one pattern for the BOM myself, how exciting is that? I'm planning on a Crossed Pinwheel. I could not find a pattern to feature, but I did find a cross stitch version that I will be creating the quilt pattern for. Pictures and everything folks so be on the look out for it. My date is April 15, but if someone can't do theirs mine could move up.
Nearly the entire time I have been writing you I have been watching my cat. It's Tiny our Alpha being crazy this time. She was talking up and down the back of the couch and showing off her beautifully long and lean body. DH found some CD's in the shed of all places and she's been trying to smell them. I've tried and tried to take a photo but alas, this one was the best. :( Silly Kitty.

Sometimes Ups...

Today has been a day of ups and downs, much like that song in Disney's Robin Hood. "Sometimes ups, out number the downs but not in Nottingham", I'm not certain which weighs heavier here yet.

The first up is that I shopped fabric today. My most favorite thing in the world it seems, which lead me on an inspired path including but not limited to giving myself a refresher course on batting. My friend Heather must be rolling her eyes by now, but that comes with being a quilter, sometimes people understand you, but not always.

Next up my mom came over and we measured my scarf for Soldier's Angels, I'm up to 28"! I might just have enough yarn after all.

Lastly that Double Star I made has been driving me crazy, something with the colors, ect. just wasn't quite right. So it dawned on me (no dish soap involved thank you) that I should turn it on point. So here it is and I can honestly say I'm much happier with it. I'm planning to embroider "Hope" in the middle of the white center, and my Row Robin theme will be Christmas Hope. I was going to do something fancy with the triangles but the Batik worked out just fine.

On the sad side, my nearly 9 year old cat Kitty got herself into an awful bit of trouble with the Christmas tree, and injured herself quite badly. We are under strict orders to keep her quiet and to keep a close watch on her. Any spare happy thoughts we could use. Kitty's birthday is this Jan. 1st (well as close as we know to celebrate it) and her 8 year anniversary of living with us is the 3rd of Jan. I certainly never would have guessed that when I mentioned her the other day that I would be beside myself right now as to if she'll even make it to celebrate with us. So any happy thoughts you have time to give us we'd appreciate it.

Jessica's Check up

As much as I wanted to I can't seem to bring myself to label this post with what my daughter said at the doctor's office yesterday. You might worry about me.

So dd went to the doctor's yesterday, we needed her shot records and they wouldn't give them to me. Which was crazy because they were up to date. I thought there was a law about that? Ahh well, so we went. First off to the scale, It's a tiny little thing only about 2 feet high, with a silly simile on the stainless steel. The step plate is "bubbly" as though to be silly on your feet. Well my daughter takes one look at that and stops dead in her tracks.

"Noooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm not DYING! I'm not DYING!" She screams, "Did she just say..." says one of the CNAs standing there. Her daddy and I glance up from trying to get her on the scale. "Yes, she did" we say together. We did manage to get her on the scale with her shoes off. Silly again since then were those foam clogs that weigh about an ounce, and most likely added more insult to the injury. 30 pounds that's my big girl. It was so bad at this point the nurse takes us off to the room and measures Jessica on the exam table like a baby.

After that it was smooth sailing, she's been talking about it ever since. Any why not, in spite what they'd told me she didn't need any shots!

Today I have the blue quilt in the sewing machine! Oh it thrills me to have it there. I'm quilting a exponentially growing diamond over it, and I'm going to quilt back in some of the blue borders. I'd say in one day I got it about 80% quilted. Not bad for a full size quilt. Of course I will have photos when I'm done.

My knitting is only 24"! That's half way, but it means I need more yarn. Hopefully a way to get it will appear, so I can send it before Christmas like I wanted.

My handmade Angel doll made it's way north and has been received. Apparently I didn't dress her well enough and the new owner thinks she needs a quilt. I thought angels could regulate that stuff without clothing, but what do I know?

My sister has assigned me another pair of pants to embroider, so when my arms became tired today I looked at designs. I have plenty of ideas of what not to do. Hopefully what to do will come to me soon.

DH and I have been playing an old GameCube game. We once beat it, but since it has been collecting dust on the shelves. We pulled it out I guess two years or more ago, but Rob played it without me, so for me to play I had to use his character and that's no fun. So this time around we have rules. No playing without the other, unless you're bringing your character up to the level of your spouse, and no playing unless Jessica is in bed. Regardless of animated blood and violence the music is a bit on the creepy side. It's a nice change of pace. But it had me going to bed a bit later than normal, maybe that explains the sleepiness I'm feeling?

Tomorrow is our Secret Santa Christmas Party on the Quilting Board. I'm certain that will be loads of fun. Did I mention that my Santa lives in Spain? Her work is simply amazing. A pox on the $20, a part of me hopes she invested just a tiny bit of time into making me something. Oh where is the big happy eye smiling face when I need it! LOL. I also invested time over money, more than a little time, as I hand stitched... Okay no more hints until tomorrow. Our party starts at 4:00PM so pictures of the gift I sent and the gift I received with post after that. DH has been keeping my package put up and away somewhere. I don't know where, hopefully he will give it back so I can open it tomorrow.

Surprise!

Yesterday I made a veil for my daughter. Of course she's only three but she thinks anything that wears a veil must be a princess. I had extra material, because someone once told me you use crinoline on top of a towel when you embroider it. So I bought the first kind I found in the bargain bin. Of course it was the "sparkle kind" so that's not the "proper kind". Oh well. I was going to give it to Jessica for Christmas, but she's been pretty bummed that the birthday crown they gave me at 1900 Park Fare broke. It's completely "dress up" play style but it turned out okay. She tells me it's to big, in spite that I measured her head first so I put a tiny knot in the elastic.

My kitting is coming along just fine, with my "twists" yarn as long as the green. I wrap the entire thing around my needles every night before bed after I'm done working on them, but I promise my progress isn't worth photographing.

I also made a towel from a bargain bin purchase a while back. I made it from the terry cloth, would you have guess if you hem it, terry will stretch? It gives it sort of a rippled edge. Nice enough to give as a Christmas Gift. No photos till after Christmas.
I got a just because pressie! Yep, I swapped charmed squares with Linda a while back, and you know how much I just love cutting fabric. LOL! Well she sent me a nice present today, complete with a rice pack (sans the rice) inside. It was such a nice surprise. It's been a tough couple of weeks so it was nice to receive a little surprise.

Roll in with the Holiday Cheer

I've been up to my knitting when my hands are free. I'm need to pay attention to what I'm doing, but all the same I'm up over 18". That's only 30" from my goal for my scarf that I'm planning to send overseas.

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving weekend, even if your Thanksgiving wasn't perfect perhaps you got the perfect gift or you put up all your Christmas things? Well I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was the Thanksgiving that almost wasn't but my sister came in and saved the day. We had a great time laughing and joking all afternoon. Sometime around 6 we settled down to eat all different kinds of food. Some that was Amazing all the way down to okay. Let me just tell you my husband's mashed potatoes and gravy was even better the second day and that's saying something since it was great to begin with.

I do not do Black Friday. What are you going to do with you see a scooter going at full throttle? You're just going to walk on your own way to get there. I tell you what I think they have governors on those things so they can't go fast. I can't imagine what it would be like. Instead Rob and I watched the "Mork and Mindy" Marathon that was on all day. Me on and off, Rob all day. You can see so much into the future parts of Robin Williams in that show it's just amazing really.

My daughter loves Eggnog, who would have guessed, right? Well not me. I think the price of it is up this year, but based on how she's been drinking it, I might need to make sure to have some in the house all this Holiday season. I even have baking plans this year.

We put the tree up yesterday (Saturday) and I have high hopes that Rob will get all the outside lights done today. We shall see I suppose. He's told me such pretty ideas I'm really looking forward to it. The photo above is without the flash. Funny how it all changed when the flash is on.

Currently on the back of my mind is the apple quilt I'd like to make for my husband, I already have the pattern picked out. As well as the child's quilt I'd like to make for Charity in 2009. So far I haven't decided which charity I will make it for. My sister asked if I might be just donating it through one of the local hospitals. I tried to look up doing something like that, but I couldn't find anything. I couldn't even find anything for giving a quilt straight to St. Jude's, if you can believe that. Oh well all that is slated for 2009, except maybe the apple quilt. I feel like I'm falling behind in what I'm working on because December is getting here so quickly. Tomorrow in fact. Take care all!

Red Star Quilt Unveiled

I've been working on quilting the Red 16 point star quilt for a couple of days now. The end is in sight, perhaps I will reach it today or tomorrow. Of the quilting part that is, after it's all quilted it will still need a binding of sorts. I really like the look a nested prairie point binding, but I'm not certain if I'm going to commit to that. If I don't it will have a traditional Amish binding where the muslin backing is pulled forward to the front to bind. You can see that I planned for this because of the extra muslin all around. This is the detail of the quilting. I used the quilting guide from Rob's old sewing machine that has long since left his possession (he has all the feet though). It's new to me, but it's going quite easily. All of the white areas are being quilted with that foot. All of the red areas are being quilted with a decorative stitch on my new sewing machine. It's a wavy stitch which means it goes way faster than normal stitch in the ditch. You can see the wavy lines over the quilt label below. Last but never least, and certainly not forgotten is the quilt label. I appliqued the label on and now have quilted it in.
My knitting had to be all pulled out, but I don't mind. I've learned my mistakes and corrected them. Once I was certain I had the hang of it I pulled it all out and began again. It's nearly 9" long and already looks so cuddly.

The Row Robin is growing up just fine. So far I'm two people shy from being a full group for the small quilting group and half way from full for the larger quilt group. I haven't joined either group yet, but I will when I know where the need is, perhaps both? I'm still playing with ideas. I'm so excited about this, it's open to all quilting techniques so I'm really planning to push myself to new levels.
Every time I pull out the camera Jessica wants in the photos, so here is the latest one of her. I love her for it, because I know even though it can make me crazy the day will come she want want me to NOT take any pictures of her.

Fun With Photos

I took a knitting class, my first ever on Monday. Currently I have a 10" by 2 1/2" piece. It was supposed to be a scarf, but it's grown a bit to much the wrong way. So I'm going to let this one be a baby doll blanket for my daughter for Christmas. I've learned so much already (including what I was doing wrong to make it get so long!!!) And I went to the thrift store with my mom yesterday and she bought me a longer set of knitting needles, so instead of using the short 8's I'm now using the long 8's, it's working so much better for being able to see what I'm doing and thereby correct my mistakes. :) We also went and looked at yarn at Joann's, did you know most yarn is acrylic? I didn't know that. Mom and I also found some amazing alternatives, they had wool, but I'll allergic so I don't think I'll be using that kind, but they also had 100% cotton that was nice, and 100% bamboo that was simply amazing to touch. I even found one that was 60% or so cotton and 30% corn! Who knew right? Let me guess all my wonderful readers knew all of this already, well I didn't. I'm planning on making a scarf to send overseas to Soldier's Angels, there are so many amazing colors and choices! I keep practicing so that my stitches will be good enough to give to someone else. My little Stash Swap Angel Doll is done, Rob my DH added her halo two days ago now and she looks just amazing. She is a bit older than I thought she would be, but all that watching out for people must wear on her.
Winter has Sprung, and all my kitties are up for any and all stunts. I couldn't resist snapping this shot of Sunny with his Winter Maine Coon Fur Coat coming back in, funny how much smaller he looked in photos I took over the Summer! Even mom said he looks huge the other day. Oh for the Record Sunny only tips the scale to 12 pounds, and he turned four this past Summer so we're not expecting anymore growth from him.

I'm working on a Row Robin. Where each member adds one row to the quilt. Instead of going around and around as with Round Robins for a Row Robin you only have to make one row for each member in your group. I'm planning each group to have 6 people, and starting right after the Christmas Holiday, so everyone can take advantage of super holiday fabric savings. This is mainly based out of the Quilting forum, but since I'm running it I'm willing to open it up a bit to others I know if they're interested. There's lots more writing about it, and I currently have one big quilt group and one small quilt group open. The deadline for sign up is Dec. 24th. If your interested contact me and I can share the rest of the details for you. I'm considering the fabric behind my daughter which was bought for a completely different purpose for one of my Row Robins. Me? Oh I'm planning on throwing in for whatever size needs another person to balance it.